On the evening of Sunday 26 November, Mario Castaño, leader of the Madre Union Community and one of the reclaimers of land, was murdered in his farm, in La Florida village, in the Chocó.

According to a press released by Construyendo Paz en los Territorios net (Building Peace in Territories), Mario “had been denouncing to police forces, institutions and NGOs the presence of members of Gaitanistas Autodefence Force - Clan del Golfo, in the area. Last week the group even called people to a meeting, something exposed by Mario”

Mario Castaño had been removed from his land in 1996 because of paramilitary violence. He had got back to the Madre Union community three years ago to lead together with other peasants the process of reclaiming their lands.

In another statement released by the Territorial Space for Training and Education Silver Vidal Mora, the former FARC guerrillas underlined that “it is under everybody’s eyes the alarming pattern with which the armies against land restitution are working in this areas”. The ETCR denounce the “negligence of the State, that is doing nothing to make land restitution effective and operative”.